massenoire

the building

In the framework of the industrial wasteland redevelopment project and the development of the “Cité des Sciences” (City of Science), Fonds Belval chose to re-enhance a part of the site’s infrastructures. In the same way as the building that formerly housed the furnace workers’ changing rooms, the black-mass hall was able to be re-used and, therefore benefit from partial reconstruction.

The manufacturing hall for the closing compound is located near blast furnace A and along the ramp leading to the elevated passage. It contained a variety of equipment used for the production of the closing compound for the tap holes, also known as black mass (which is tar-based). On the outside, 6 metres along its extended sidewall, the hall had a covered area used as a shelter to dry casting ladles. With the introduction of the counter-pressure method, the production of black mass was abandoned and the production unit ceased operations by the end of the 1970s.